Visual Anthropology

Catalog description

We see others as we imagine them to be, in terms of our values, not as they see themselves. This course examines ways in which we understand and represent the reality of others through visual media, across the boundaries of culture, gender, and race. It considers how and why visual media can be used to represent or to distort the world around us. Pictorial media, in particular ethnographic film and photography, are analyzed to document the ways in which Indigenous and Native peoples in different parts of the world have been represented or imagined by anthropologists and western popular culture. Throughout, we explore how activists and artists in different parts of the world have produced their own visual media forms to decolonize historical depictions of Indigeneity. This course is discussion, writing, and project oriented, encouraging students to acquire a range of analytical skills through a combination of text interpretation, visual analysis, and verbal expression.